Shadows Of Eden
by Scatter Plot
Summary: [Kurai Portrait] With the death of Arachne and Boyz on her head, Kurai travels to the cave of mourning to properly send them off. What surprises await her there?


**A/N: No point. No direction. If you don't like it, don't review.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Angel Sanctuary.**

There's a hollow dripping sound familiar to that of the descent of a single drop of water resounding in a barren cave. The noise is followed by that of gentle breathing, steady and calm.

Princess Kurai stared listlessly into the cool, crystal depths of the pool around her waist. She was in the cave of mourning, a scared place to the people of Gehenna. Much time had passed but Kurai had not forgotten to venture into the cave's hollow to pay respects to Lady Arachne. It was a dejected place, one in which the air was so thick with sorrow that it could stifle the very breath from your lungs. Many had drown themselves there unable to fight the despair that gripped their hearts. The last time the young girl entered here it was to for her family, her people and Lady Alexial. Even then Arachne had been her pillar of strength.

Her head lowered so that the silver hair that once lined a round cheerful face could mask her shame. Arachne's death had only proven what a naive fool she really was. She believed too much in others and slowly began to depend on them. Her ice colored eyes intesified on the water as cat-like pupils studied her reflection. A young woman gleemed back at her. Kurai took note to how her face had become more slender and her lanky form was beginning to develope a more curvy shape. Even her breast were starting to blossom. Just recently Noyz had complimented her on the grace in which she enter a room. But alas she still felt very much like a child.

Her love for Setsuna was anything but imature and no matter how pain staking it became she would fight until his dream was realized--even if that dream was another woman. Kurai held no paticular grudge against Sara and understood that she could never relieve her hold on Setsuna. She only wished that the pain coursing through her tender vains would subside. It was a bitter-sweet poison, one that left her spent and in anguish all the while aching for more.

Maybe that's why she developed such fantasies about Mad Hatter or becoming Lucifer's bride. She had hopes that someone could love her as much as Setsuna loved his sister. But who could love a bratty child? One that couldn't defend herself? Arachne could, but that was all done with now. Kurai could command dragons, but she could not turn back the hands of time nor alter fate. Arachne's death had not been wasted, Kurai would grow into a lady that her cousin could be proud of.

Her tan, lithe fingers laced the rim of the water before dunking in to push down the cream colored skirt floating around her thighs. She bit back sour tears. She hated the taste of this life and she despised her own crippling weakness. She had vowed to be stronger so that no one else would be compromised for her sake. Yet times like this made strength something hard to draw.

"Why such a heavy heart, princess?" a familiar voice arose soothingly to her ears.

Kurai glanced down in awe at the pasty face that now replaced where her own reflection had been just moments ago. The elaborate face paint made the character unmistakable. "Mad Hatter..."

"You weren't mourning my death were you?" he replied slyly.

"I thought you were-"

"It seems it was not yet my time, princess," he flipped back copper piece of wavy hair.

"Why have you come to me now? I am no longer of use to you," she hissed shortly turning on her heels.

The image reassimilated infront of her. "But I have reason to believe that you still need me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she shut her eyes. She didn't have time to play his clownish games anymore. She had lost too much.

"Are you willing to make the same sacrifices that the other's have made for you? The same as Arachne and Boyz? Otherwise you'll be no use to anyone," the mimed face satan pressed.

"Shut up! Shut up!" she repeated thrashing her hands into the reflection until she was soaked to the bone with the fridged water.

All that was left was of the Hatter was an endless ring of ripples, leaving a freezing girl with hot tears trailing down her cheeks. She must have imagined it all, the grotto was famous for sparking hellucinations. They were common in times of great sorrow.

Deciding that she wouldn't allow the cavern to steal away anymore of her sanity, she rose from pool of tears. The clap of her bare wet feet against cold stone echoed through the empty hollow. Sopping wet, Kurai watched as the water beaded and fell from the tips of her hair. Although her drenched clothes clung to her uncomfortably like a second-skin, the young girl did not reach for the towel she had brought with her. The cold helped numb the pain.

Turning back to the piercing blue liquid she could almost she Arachne and Boyz within its depths. No, she would become worth something and she was willing to make any sacrfice in their names. She was Princess Kurai the last Dragon Master and she would aid the savior by any means neccessary. She would become a girl worth figthing for. And at that moment, Kurai became a woman.


End file.
